In 2023, I received a message from a pharmacist who had spent almost 30 years in the same career.
Her name was Eilish.
She told me she had developed a huge passion for health and fitness after first turning to the gym as a form of therapy during an incredibly difficult period in her life. Her twin boys had been diagnosed with an incurable condition at just six years old, and years later, her brother tragically died descending Mount Everest after reaching the summit.
She had been through a lot. And somewhere along the way, training had become far more than exercise.
Eilish asked me what I thought about her retraining as a personal trainer.
I told her to go for it.
A few days later, she'd booked the course.
Three weeks later, she messaged me to say how much she loved it.
A few months later, she'd passed every exam.
And shortly afterwards, after almost three decades as a pharmacist, she took the leap and opened her own boutique gym from a log cabin in her garden, specialising in something she had become deeply passionate about: helping women through perimenopause, menopause and beyond.
Going back through those messages before recording this conversation was incredible, because this episode really became a story about two different kinds of strength.
The strength required to change your life, and the physical strength we need to protect our lives as we age.
We talk honestly about what it takes to walk away from a career that has formed such a huge part of your identity. The fear of failure. Other people's judgement. Financial uncertainty. Self-doubt. And the question we don't ask often enough: we talk endlessly about the cost of changing, but what is the cost of staying exactly where you are?
Then we get into women's health.
We talk about what actually matters during perimenopause and menopause, why women need to stop allowing this stage of life to define what they're capable of, and the enormous importance of resistance training, protein, movement and properly fuelling the body.
We talk about muscle not simply as something that changes how your body looks, but as something that protects your independence, mobility and quality of life as you age.
We challenge some of the beliefs that keep women stuck:
I'm too old.
It's my hormones.
I don't have time.
Weights will make me bulky.
I could never do that.
And we talk about what women are often really searching for when they say they want to lose weight.
Confidence. Energy. Strength. Freedom. Capability. To feel like themselves again.
This is a conversation about menopause and women's health, but it's also about something much bigger.
It's about refusing to believe that the life you've lived until now has to dictate the life you live next.
Eilish changed careers after almost 30 years. She took something that helped carry her through some of the hardest periods of her life and turned it into something that now helps other women change theirs.
So if you're listening feeling stuck in a career, a body, an identity, or simply a version of your life that doesn't feel like you anymore, this episode is for you.
You are not too old. It is not too late. And you are absolutely allowed to change your mind about how you want to spend the rest of your life.